


Venus

by FlightOfInsanity



Series: Redstart [1]
Category: Destiny (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, character exploration thing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-19
Updated: 2016-08-19
Packaged: 2018-08-09 16:40:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,860
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7809412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FlightOfInsanity/pseuds/FlightOfInsanity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This isn't the first team Liora's been on.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Venus

Liora had never been late for anything in her life.

Of course now, the first time she was running a solid 15 minutes late, she was supposed to be meeting with Lox. She still wasn’t sure how the Hunter felt about her presence on the team, but she didn’t think it was good. Mava-2 had been welcoming, but Lox had been distant and terse and seemed to resent being confined to Earth and the Moon.

When she’d asked the Titan about it, she’d just been told that was how Lox was. Even after having been told on multiple occasions that Lox was "just a pain in the ass” Liora still worried the Hunter would boot her from the team. She’d been trying as hard as she could to stay on her good side and here she was – fifteen minutes late.

The Warlock hurried into the hangar, looking around for Lox’s ship.

“You’re late,” the Hunter called from off to the left. She was on top of a pile of crates, idly playing with one of her knives.

Liora took a steadying breath as she walked toward Lox. “I know, I know, I’m really sorry. I just had, um…”

She stopped, not sure how she was going to try to explain why she was late.

Lox hopped off her makeshift throne and peered at the Warlock. Her face creased into an odd expression. Annoyance? Disgust?

“Have you been crying?”

“No, no. It’s—“

“Liora.”

She stopped talking; not once since she’d met her teammates had Lox ever used her full name. Liora glanced at the Hunter’s face and quickly looked back down at her hands as she fiddled with one of her sleeves. Whatever that expression was, Lox did not look happy.

“Explain.” It wasn’t a request.

“I… ran into one of my old fireteams.”

“Old teams?”

Liora nodded slowly. “Yes. They, um… It didn’t go well. I don’t like the fighting, especially the close-quarters, and they always did so I would get teased for that and for studying. And I would get left behind on missions, especially when I was trying to provide covering fire.” She shrugged a shoulder half-heartedly. “Wasn’t much better in the Tower with them, really. Same kinds of things. I thought they’d be better now that I’m not on the team, but…”

Silence stretched on after she trailed off. Lox shifted and the movement caused Liora to look back up. The Hunter looked Liora over and seemed to decide something.

“Well, you’re here now, so on to the ship with you.”

That was the end of that, apparently. Liora wasn’t sure what she’d expected – Lox had never really shown an interest in talking about personal issues, so why should she start now? Naturally, the team leader would be more focused on training.

“Where are we going?”

Lox hesitated for a second. “Patrol,” she said carefully.

The tone was suspicious, but Liora allowed herself to transmat up to the ship. Lox followed and took the pilot’s seat, her Ghost blinking into existence as she did. Authorization was requested and granted and they were soon on their way. The engines thrummed as the ship launched itself into a jump – not something you would need to go to the Cosmodrome.

“Are we going to the Moon?” Liora asked. She’d never been and was excited to finally see the lunar landscape in person.

Lox said nothing, but her Ghost sighed.

“Are we… _not_ going to the Moon?”

“No.”

“But Ikora said—“

“She knows what Ikora said,” the Ghost interrupted. It sounded like a tired parent.

The ship thumped as it slowed from its jump. A marbled yellow and green planet took up the view screen in front of them. The ship descended through the swirling mess of clouds to a transmat zone.

“Welcome to Venus, Lio.”

“But—“

“No ‘buts’,” Lox said. “We’re scheduled for patrols and this is _technically_ kind of a patrol. You want to learn, yes?”

“Well, yes, but—“

Liora didn’t have a chance to finish before her feet were hitting the Venusian soil. The transmat zone was nestled in what appeared to be a hot spring. Something large flew by overhead, but before she could look at what it was the team comm channel burst to life.

“Hunter, you had better have a good reason for being on Venus.”

Ikora did _not_ sound pleased. Liora looked to Lox, terrified of the Warlock Vanguard’s wrath; Lox waved a hand. _Don’t worry._

“Venus? I think you may need to check your records, Ikora. We’re on a lunar patrol. Filled out the logs and everything.”

“I had a tracker installed in your ship, Hunter.”

“Ah.” Lox cleared her throat. “Did I say lunar? I meant Venusian.”

“Standby for transmat.” The Vanguard was going to yank them off the planet.

“Funny story about that transmat link.”

The silence from Ikora was somehow more threatening than her dangerously angry voice had been. Liora looked at Lox and upturned a palm. _What are you doing??_

Lox just drew a smiley shape in front of her helmet and continued, “The local link is fine, but the remote link is, uh, broken.”

“Well. Isn’t that convenient.”

“It’s just the strangest thing. Anyway, looks like we’re going through a canyon. Gotta go, bye!”

The connection with the Warlock Vanguard cut off in a burst of garbled static, likely jammed somehow by the Hunter.

“She’s going to kill us.”

“She won’t kill _you_ ,” Lox said. She summoned her sparrow and hopped on. “Now come on. We’re already in trouble, and I did have a reason for bringing you here.”

The Hunter did have a point. Ikora was undoubtedly going to murder them both regardless of whether they left now or hours from now. Liora summoned her own sparrow and Lox took off down the slope, going just slow enough for Liora’s vehicle to keep up. Red edged into her radar and she slowed down a bit.

“Just hunker down and ignore them,” Lox said over the comms.

They weaved through a small group of startled Fallen and were out of weapons-range before most of them could even get their guns up. More red crept in and Lox chimed in on the comms again. “Same thing here. Take a left up the stairs and go into the building at the top. They won’t follow us in.”

The pair boosted up the steps and crashed their sparrows through the doorway. The Fallen, true to Lox’s word, howled at them but didn’t follow them inside.

“Lesson one,” Lox said. “The Fallen won’t usually give chase if you don’t give them a reason. They stake out their little territory and they’ll defend it, but once you’re gone they don’t care.”

“I didn’t think there were any Fallen on Venus.”

“There certainly aren’t as many, but they’re still here. Now come on, we’re not quite there.” Lox wandered down into a collapsed portion of floor, beckoning for Liora to follow.

Whether it was a natural cave or just a large crawl-space, Liora wasn’t sure. The tunnel was full of a mixture of natural and unnatural stone grown over with mosses and odd plants. A shallow creek ran through the center of the floor and their splashing steps echoed off the walls. As they came to a bend in the tunnel the floor began to slope back up toward the ceiling, funneling the space toward another collapsed opening. Lox ushered Liora into a sheltered wedge of floor and ceiling and rubble.

“Wait here,” she said. She pulled out her rifle and checked it over before bounding up the rubble and into the room beyond.

Seconds turned into minutes and Liora heard nothing – no fighting, no gunfire, no footsteps. She didn’t even know what they were doing on this planet and now she was alone. Again. She waited a few moments longer – surely Lox hadn’t left? – before creeping out of her nook. Ever so slowly she pulled out her own rifle and poked her head up through the hole in the floor.

Concrete filled most of her vision. Where it had come from, she wasn’t sure, but it blocked the view of most of the room. There wasn’t any red showing up on her radar, but it didn’t mean there weren’t enemies. She took a quick breath and was about to look around the large slab of concrete when a head popped around from the other side. Liora yelped and fell backwards.

“I thought I told you to wait down there!” Lox shouted, swatting at the rifle pointing at her face.

“I thought you left!” Liora shouted back.

“I _left_ to make sure the coast was clear. Last thing I need is to run you straight into a Minotaur. Now will you stop pointing that at me?”

Liora quickly lowered her rifle. “At least tell me that’s what the plan is.”

Lox mumbled an apology and pulled her helmet off. She scrubbed a hand through her hair and left it sticking out at odd angles.

“This is a combat zone.”

The Hunter waved it off. “Ghost’s tapped into the sensor net and we’ll be pop out of here if any Vex decide to show up. Oh. Lesson two – Vex are robots that can teleport through time.”

“Through _time?_ ”

“Or something. Vex are confusing.”

Liora pulled her own helmet off. “And the Vex are why we’re here?”

“What? No.”

“Then why—“

Lox grabbed Liora’s hand and pulled her up and out from behind the concrete. Suddenly she could see the whole room and she looked around, mouth agape, trying to take in every detail. There was a large, gorgeous statue at the far end of the cavernous room and an odd pillar of light at the nearer end. A balcony ran around the entire upper level and each floor was completely lined with shelves. The shelves themselves all appeared to be stuffed full of books and artifacts, undoubtedly most of them were weathered and damaged, but it was an incredible wealth of knowledge.

She looked back at Lox. The Hunter was idly looking around, apparently content to let Liora do whatever she wanted.

“Why are we here?”

Lox shrugged. “I thought you might like it.”

“Was this your plan for today all along?”

“No. We were originally going to go to the Moon.”

“Then why?”

The odd, disgusted expression again. “Because I thought you needed it. I know I can be… difficult and I’m… sorry.”

Liora stared at her team leader, unsure of what to say. Lox seemed to get more and more uncomfortable and waved her hands at the Warlock, shooing her away. “Go, go! Do your Warlock thing. Read, study, steal whatever you want.”

“I’m not going to steal anything.”

“Not like anyone’s around to care. And it’s either that or leave it to the rain and the Fallen.”

Liora fiddled with her gloves for a moment longer. “Thank you,” she said, pouring as much gratitude as she could into the two words.

“Yeah, sure, whatever. Now shoo.”

The Warlock grinned and bounded off, flitting from shelf to shelf and pulling down objects as she went.

“And try to remember my ship is small!”


End file.
